don t like" and here was the rift within the lute
"is paddin the oof down there."

It was plain the years were telling on this ener
getic pair, and while they enjoyed the quick work
with the fingers, paddin the oof, which is walk
ing, was beginning to bear heavily upon them.
And I looked at their gray hairs, and ahead into
the future ten years, and wondered how it would be
with them.

I noticed another man and his old woman join
the line, both of them past fifty. The woman,
because she was a woman, was admitted into the
spike; but he was too late, and, separated from his
mate, was turned away to tramp the streets all
night.

The street on which we stood, from wall to wall,
w r as barely twenty feet wide. The sidewalks were
three feet wide. It was a residence street. At
least workmen and their families existed in some
sort of fashion in the houses across from us. And
each day and every day, from one in the afternoon
till six, our ragged spike line is the principal feature
of the view commanded by their front doors and
windows. One workman sat in his door directly
opposite us, taking his rest and a breath of air after
the toil of the day. His wife came to chat with
him. The doorway was too small for two, so she
stood up. Their babes sprawled before them. And

[[100]]

p099 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p100w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p101

v?